Queenie has a new home

Queenie was picked up by a wonderful woman on Sunday. Queenie's new home has geese, ducks, chickens and goats for her to harass. Elaine promised that Queenie would not be eaten (by the humans anyway), and I offered to Elaine that if the relationship with Queenie didn't work out that she was welcome to return her, no questions asked.

In the days before Elaine arrived to pick up Queenie, I would occasionally have pangs of guilt about giving Queenie away. Then I'd watch Queenie driving off Godzilla from the gaggle again and again, and think "B*tch, time for you to GO."

The gaggle quickly returned to a cohesive unit after Queenie's departure. That is, after they shook off the literal goose chase from 15 minutes earlier.

[pic: a happier Godzilla]

Hide and Go Seek

You can't tell me that of all five Ameraucanas, only ONE is laying (Blondie #1). I hear Lady Grey clucking around in that "ugh, I'm uncomfortable, where do I go to get rid of this load?" way that the other laying girls do. Red still gives me that "uh, are you a rooster?" crouch whenever I come near. I'm finding only one blue-green egg, however, in the late mornings.

Cinnamon (she of Zombie Chicken and Mighty Grub Hunter fame) has a few different places she'll lay if the favorite hen box is occupied. There's a place behind the rosemary hedge, another under one of the spikey plants in the front garden bed, and yet another under a second spikey plant up on the hill right across from the kitchen door. I've yet to find any blue-green eggs in these spots, nor any in the usual chicken hangouts.

[ Which leads to a rant: why is it that only ONE box out of the EIGHT we provide ever used? What's so blinkin' special about THAT box? It used to be the box opposite that was the favorite; now it's another, and nobody wants to use the others. The other chickens - besides pragmatic Cinnamon, that is - will WAIT until the box is empty before they'll lay there. ]

I know there's gotta be eggs around here somewhere. More than likely, I'll finally find the clutch, and there'll be over a dozen rotting eggs waiting. Oooh, yeah! Or even better: the dogs will find them, start crunching or walking through them, spreading that special sulphur smell throughout the property. Yeah, that'd be reeeeeal special.

By the way, thanks for all the well wishes about my back! Am 75% recovered. Just in time to work on the property this weekend... wait, what? How's that fair?

Have a great weekend, all!

D'oh!

Did you know: one gallon of water equals 8.33 pounds? If you multiply 8.33 by 5 (which is what a five gallon bucket holds - the logic, it astounds!), you get 41.65 pounds. Move 41.65 pounds quickly AND incorrectly, and it equals a torqued back.

D'oh!

Was cleaning out the goose pools, putting the soiled water into five-gallon buckets to then water the grass, garden and compost piles. Pitched one five-gallon full bucket atop the compost pile in a way that my back did not appreciate. Finished up as best I could, and then crawled into bed, only rising once more to make sure everyone was squared away later that afternoon/evening. Alas and alack, no critter stories today.

So remember: lift with your knees, not your back, and don't pitch 41.65 pounds of unstable weight like a shotput unless you are, indeed, an Olympic shotputter. That is all.

[Instead, here's a pic of Bandit crashed out by the kitchen door, and the chickens (Pepper and Red) looking like they maybe have a prank up their sleeve... err, wings.]

[pic] Cap'n Frau

"Ahoy, and yarrr! Avast the sails, cabin-boy, and..!" err... well, I never was good at pirate-speak. Here's a pic of Frau with Spouse, hanging out. More likely, she's thinking "Where's the yogurt? Where's the crushed tortilla chips? D@mn you people, remind me again why I keep you around?"

Queenie, meet Craigslist

One Tufted Roman Goose - free to home with established gaggle

Reply to: xxxxx@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-11-09, 5:15PM CST

Queenie is having issues with one of the other geese in the gaggle, and we need to place her in a different established gaggle. It's either place her, or eat her. Since she was our first goose raised by hand, we just can't bring ourselves to do the latter.

She's 9 months old, very healthy. Raised on combination of organic and commercial feed, with additional green fodder (due to drought, we've had to supplement - nothing green growing around here for them to graze on right now). Never been sick, so has not had medicated feed or antibiotics. She's been part of a gaggle that free-ranges during the day, and then placed into a large enclosed pen at night. Tufted Romans are small compared to the majority of commercial geese, and laid back in general.

Since geese are social creatures, they need other geese to be happy. Because of this, we ask that ONLY people with established gaggles respond. Pickup near XXXXX.
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She got into a huge fight with Godzilla, battling beak-to-beak. Since then, she constantly chases him away from the rest of the group. We even kept her sequestered away from the gaggle for a day to see if that would change her attitude, but as soon as we let her out, she went tearing after Godzilla again. I don't understand, as we raised Godzilla and Queenie together, and he's a very good gander/mate to the entire gaggle - sweet and protective. I'm sad about having to give her away, but we need Godzilla's protection skills. Hopefully, placing her in a new group will make her happier.

*sniffs/wipes tear*